History Of Vizag
The city is said to have derived its name Visakhapatnamfrom the deity 'Visakha' (the God of Valour).Visakhapatnam had a population of 2,845,938. After the state government approved the formation of Greater Visakhapatnam with the merger of Gajuwaka municipality and 32 villages in the vicinity in the Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, the population of the city and the metro area swelled to 3.1 Million. Males constitute 50% of the population and females 50%. Average literacy rate of 69%, higher than the national average of 59.5%. Male literacy is 74% and female literacy is 63%. 10% of the population is younger than six. Visakhapatnam is listed as one of the Hundred Fastest Growing Cities of the World.
Hinduism is practised by the majority of vizagites followed by Islam and Christianity . The city patronised Buddhism for 2 millennia as evident from the presence of many Buddhist sangharamas in the outskirts. The Buddhist population has however waned since. All the religions co-exist peacefully, Vizag never witnessed communal riots during its entire history.
Language
Visakhapatnam is predominantly a Telugu speaking city. The Telugu spoken by the middle classes is a standard dialect, while a significant population who have settled down in the city from adjoining villages and neighbouring districts of East Godavari , Vizianagaram and Srikakulam speak Uttarandhra (North Coastal) Mandalikam dialects. Historians believe that centuries ago, when Uttarandhra was part of the Kalinga Empire, Buddhist missionaries and merchants might have taken Telugu (Derived from Brahmi script) script to Southeast Asia from the shores of Uttarandhra where it parented into the scripts of Mon , Burmese , Thai , Khmer , Siam , Japanese and Balinese languages and even Sinhala of Sri Lanka . Their similarities to Telugu script can be discerned even today.
Visakhapatnam is home to miniscule proportion of Oriya community, their migration is of recent origin. Visakhapatnam due to the Naval presence and high concentration of public sector industries has a significant Hindi speaking population. It is also home to a large section of Muslims ; most of them date back many generations which makes Hindi the second most spoken language.